Nick Cusworth

"We're all fools, all the time. It's just we're a different kind each day. We think, I'm not a fool today. I've learned my lesson. I was a fool yesterday but not this morning. Then tomorrow we find out that, yes, we were a fool today too. I think the only way we can grow and get on in this world is to accept the fact we're not perfect and live accordingly." - Ray Bradbury

One of the most consistently difficult and frustrating things about covering music that falls into the buckets of math rock, fusion, prog, and more is that a central and foundational tenet of that music – complexity – also ends up being the very thing that is the music’s undoing. Fans can (and do) constantly obsess over how many unusual time signatures a song packs in as a proportional measure of how great that music is, but so often in the pursuit of the most head-spinning riffs, polyrhythmic grooves, and impenetrable song forms, what most frequently is lost is the music itself and whether it’s actually worth listening to. There’s nothing wrong with complexity and complicated music, but if there isn’t an adequate payoff for the time and patience required to “understand” it then what exactly are we doing here?

One thing we try to emphasize here at Heavy Blog on a regular basis is just how much we rely on and appreciate you, our readers, for our continued existence and whatever modicums of success we achieve. This isn’t just us trying to artificially flatter you all for cynical purposes. It comes from a truly genuine place. Though all of us here have our very distinct perspectives and viewpoints that guide the general direction and tone of the website, we are always keeping an ear to the ground and eyes on what’s going on around us to make sure we’re doing the best we can to keep giving you all reasons to stick around with us. And in a time when the fates of news and media sites large and small continue to be as precarious as they’ve ever been, it’s incredibly important that we continue to adapt to the new realities of media consumption. While it’s true that we don’t have the same financial pressures of many of our peers by virtue of the fact that we remain a completely independent, volunteer-run, not-for-profit institution, it also means that the margin separating us from continuing to exist and even grow what we’re doing and being unable to operate without losing a lot of money is incredibly thin.